Havaianas is first customer for Hatch digital showroom software

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 22, 2020

Amsterdam-based Hatch has signed up Havaianas as the first customer to license its digital showroom software. The software firm, which has backing from PVH Corp, said it’s offering “a fully digital-guided wholesale selling experience” that has allowed the footwear-to-fashion brand to conduct its 2021 selling season entirely digitally, “practically eliminating all physical samples”.

Merel Werners, EMEIA Marketing Director at Havaianas said the process has been seamless and the company is planning to work with Hatch on further digital innovation.

Hatch's SVP Digital Ventures, Anne-Christine Polet, said that the “digitisation of wholesale selling plays a critical part in driving a more efficient, more resilient and more sustainable fashion value chain. By partnering with Havaianas, we will gain valuable insights to fuel the innovation process and make the Hatch Digital Showroom more effective. This is the future of fashion and we’re excited to see the technology take on the industry.”

The firm’s technology was originally developed by PVH in 2014 and the company said it has since “revolutionised” the wholesale selling process for the group’s Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein power brands.

Hatch, which also offers Digital Transformation consultancy services to ease a brand’s transition into the future of wholesale selling, has been offering the tech through a cloud-based subscription software licensing model since January. But it couldn’t have imagined back then how much the industry would soon be looking to such software. Within a month of its launch, the spread of the coronavirus saw lockdowns globally with trade shows cancelled and fashion’s normal selling processes completely disrupted.

This has led a number of big names to go increasingly digital, whether for buying or collection development. Brands to have announced major initiatives in recent months include Diesel, Boss and Jack & jones, among many others.